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A new selectable marker for transformation of Dictyostelium discoideum cells was constructed by using the bsr gene from Bacillus cereus, which confers resistance to Blasticidin S. The bsr gene was driven by Dictyostelium actin 15 promoter and Dictyostelium actin 8 terminator for expression in Dictyostelium cells. To demonstrate the feasibility of using the… (More)

Cytoplasmic dynein is a microtubule-based motor protein that is responsible for most intracellular retrograde transports along microtubule filaments. The motor domain of dynein contains six tandemly linked AAA (ATPases associated with diverse cellular activities) modules, with the first four containing predicted nucleotide-binding/hydrolysis sites (P1-P4).… (More)

We have developed an improved REMI (restriction enzyme-mediated integration) system for generating mutant Dictyostelium cells quickly and efficiently for systematic screening of cytokinesis mutants. By means of this system, three cytokinesis mutants that grow as giant and multinucleate cells were isolated from 2,000 Dictyostelium transformants. Southern… (More)

Dynein ATPases are the largest known cytoskeletal motors and perform critical functions in cells: carrying cargo along microtubules in the cytoplasm and powering flagellar beating. Dyneins are members of the AAA+ superfamily of ring-shaped enzymes, but how they harness this architecture to produce movement is poorly understood. Here, we have used cryo-EM to… (More)

The three-dimensional structures of the truncated myosin head from Dictyostelium discoideum myosin II complexed with beryllium and aluminum fluoride and magnesium ADP are reported at 2.0 and 2.6 A resolution, respectively. Crystals of the beryllium fluoride-MgADP complex belong to space group P2(1)2(1)2 with unit cell parameters of a = 105.3 A, b = 182.6 A,… (More)

Fuelled by ATP hydrolysis, dyneins generate force and movement on microtubules in a wealth of biological processes, including ciliary beating, cell division and intracellular transport. The large mass and complexity of dynein motors have made elucidating their mechanisms a sizable task. Yet, through a combination of approaches, including X-ray… (More)

In muscle, the myosin head ('crossbridge') performs the 'working stroke', in which ATP is hydrolysed to generate the sliding of actin and myosin filaments. The myosin head consists of a globular motor domain and a long lever-arm domain. The 'lever-arm hypothesis' predicts that during the working stroke, the lever-arm domain tilts against the motor domain,… (More)

Dyneins are large microtubule-based motors that power a wide variety of cellular processes. Here we report a 4.5-Å X-ray crystallographic analysis of the entire functional motor domain of cytoplasmic dynein with ADP from Dictyostelium discoideum, which has revealed the detailed architecture of the functional units required for motor activity, including the… (More)

Both ATP hydrolysis by myosin and the accompanying cyclic association-dissociation of actin and myosin are essential for muscle contraction. It is important for understanding the molecular mechanism of contraction to know the three-dimensional locations of the two major functional sites of myosin: the ATPase site and the actin-binding site. We have… (More)